OAKVILLE, Ont. – A Liberal government would spend $1 billion a year on a new student aid program to encourage more high schoolers to go to college or university — a measure billed by leader Michael Ignatieff as the biggest-ever investment in post-secondary education.

Ignatieff’s proposed “learning passport,” which he unveiled today in Oakville, Ont., would provide tax-free student grants of $1,000 a year for four years to encourage roughly one million Canadian students to continue their studies after high school.

The plan would see a Liberal government make contributions to existing registered education savings plans, or RESPs, on behalf of students. Students from lower-income families would be eligible for grants of up to $1,500 a year over four years.

Average cost of tuition:

Canada:

$5,138

British Columbia:

$4,802

Alberta

$5,318

Saskatchewan:

$5,431

Manitoba:

$3,588

Ontario:

$6,307

Quebec – residents:

$2,415

Quebec – non-residents:

$5,667

New Brunswick:

$5,516

Nova Scotia:

$5,495

Prince Edward Island:

$5,495

Newfoundland and Labrador:

$2,624

“This is the kind of investment in education which is a game-changer for our country,” Ignatieff said, standing before a dutiful-looking crop of college students from the Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning.

“It’s a billion dollars of new money to make us the best-educated society on the planet.”

The Liberal leader’s proposed “learning passport” would provide tax-free grants of $4,000 — or $1,000 a year for four years — for students across Canada to attend college or university.

The $1-billion figure is based on estimates that roughly one million students attend college or university each year; if each student gets $1,000, it works out to about $1 billion.

Senior Liberal officials say the program would be financed in part by increasing the business tax rate to 18 per cent, up from the current rate of 16.5 per cent.

Quebec students, who attend two years of a special vocational program called CEGEP followed by three years of university, would get the same amount of money, distributed over five years instead of four.

“It’s about equality, it’s about opportunity, it’s about giving every Canadian an equal chance.”

Ignatieff said the grant proposal is part of a larger “learning strategy” to be unveiled as the election campaign progresses, including investments in early learning and child care, Aboriginal learning, and expanding language training for new Canadians.

Education, he said, is nothing short of “the machine room of the Canadian economy.

“This is the key economic challenge for this country in our time, to get education accessible for everybody,” Ignatieff said.